Maria makes her goodbyes to Nick and Natasha in private. "Keep in touch," she tells Natasha with a hug, not sure she believes Natasha's nod. She doesn't even bother to tell Nick the same, knowing he'll come to her when he needs her and not a moment before.
Her goodbyes to Sam and Steve are more public; they're made in the hospital on the day Steve checks out. She shakes hands with Wilson, tells him to keep Steve out of trouble if he can.
"That's like asking me to stop the tides with a bucket," Sam laughs, while Steve looks torn between amusement and offense.
Steve gets a hug, an admonishment to take care of himself, and a promise that she'll send him any information she might come across about the Winter Soldier. Steve raises his eyebrows and says, "But I thought you said all of SHIELD's surveillance tech was destroyed."
Maria smiles sharply. "SHIELD doesn't house the only data network on the planet."
*
If this were a normal job search, Maria would start by creating a spreadsheet of all the security and technology firms in the world, categorizing them by corporation or government-operated, making a list of known associates in her network, and listing the pros and cons of each firm. Since this is not a normal job search, she pulls up the Stark Industries website and clicks on "Careers."
She skips over the analyst positions, ignores the management listings entirely, and filters out anything not based in New York. Even if those were the jobs she wanted, they're almost certainly swamped with former SHIELD employees. For this job application, all she needs is a pass to get in the building, and even that isn't an absolute necessity. Finally, she finds the perfect match, and Maria begins her application for Custodial Assistant.
Five days later, Maria Montaña has an interview scheduled with the HR department.
Two days after that, Maria Hill calmly walks into Pepper Potts' sweltering executive suite and outlines each and every security flaw she exploited in the course of her job search.
Needless to say, she's hired on the spot.
*
Maria's first order of business is closing all the loopholes she herself exploited. The second is to start sorting through the thousands of displaced SHIELD agents now vying for positions at Stark Industries. She assembles a small team of programmers she trusts and sets them to the task of filtering all new applications coming through the SI Careers link. With assistance from both Stark himself and JARVIS, they design an algorithm which matches applicants with the data from the SHIELD infodump. There are far more applicants filtered out than sent through.
Her third order of business is to locate anyone involved with the Avengers Initiative and clear them through an altered version of the algorithm used to clear the SI applicants. Luckily for everyone, very few of the Avengers Initiative team come back as positive matches for HYDRA. She's certain that Stark, at least, is aware of her extracurricular activities. She's equally certain he's tweaked her code to make it even more efficient and accurate.
Her fourth order of business is to pull any information available on the Winter Soldier. There's even less than she was hoping for, but she quietly sends it to Steve and Sam via an encrypted dropbox.
Fifth and last of her immediate responsibilities is a formal meeting with Pepper Potts to go over SI's security breach policies and the success of her code team's work.
The meeting is early, before Pepper's assistant even arrives in the office. Pepper is sitting at Marshall's desk, and she looks up and smiles when Maria steps into the room.
"Good morning."
"Reminiscing about old times?" Maria asks.
Pepper laughs. "Hardly. I'm just checking over my calendar for the day. It's easier to do it from here than from my own desk. Tony installed an integrated calendar system that shows me all of my managers' calendars, but he forgot to set it so I could filter out anything that didn't require my attendance. It's as easy to check Marshall's calendar as it is to have him fix it."
"I'm sure the availability of Solitaire on Marshall's computer has nothing to do with your reluctance to tell him," Maria says, smirking a little.
Pepper shrugs. "Even I need a break from being CEO sometimes." She pushes away from the desk and stands. "Anyway, I believe you're here to see me."
Maria follows Pepper into her office. She takes a seat and an offered coffee, setting her folder of notes on Pepper's desk. Pepper sits down as well, and the meeting begins. It's mostly perfunctory; Maria knows that Pepper is aware of how successful her short tenure has been. There isn't anything particularly new to report other than the most recent results of her team's efforts to filter members of HYDRA out of the applicant pools.
As the meeting draws to a close, Pepper leans back in her chair and says, "Now, tell me about the progress on the Avengers Initiative."
Maria doesn't blink. "The Avengers Initiative went down in flames along with the helicarriers."
Pepper gives her the sort of look that might bring Tony Stark to heel but is harmless in comparison to Nick Fury's best one-eyed stare. Still, Maria relents. She and Pepper both know that this was part of why she came to work for SI.
"All of the original six have been cleared for future missions. Most of the team behind the Initiative have also been cleared of any HYDRA connections. Those who weren't cleared have been dealt with. I have the means to contact everyone involved, should the need arise, though some are admittedly more difficult to contact than others." Maria pauses, considering her words. "You are probably already aware that the data for the Initiative was never kept on SHIELD's servers."
"I had guessed that, yes," Pepper admits with an incline of her head.
"Then you should also know that there were plans for expansion. Nick—Fury intended for there to be superheroes readily available across the globe. We were already making inroads in Europe and Africa, and I was scheduled to go to Madripoor to discuss the possibility of an East Asian contingent before the helicarrier crash."
"And now?" Pepper asks.
"I still have most of my contacts, though many of them are admittedly jumpy after everything that's happened. Between the Mandarin's flunkies and HYDRA, there are a lot of enemies in the wild right now and not many people to smoke them out." Maria levels her gaze at Pepper, waiting patiently. She doesn't have to wait long.
Pepper raises her eyebrows and says, "I assume that hunting for HYDRA agents would be considerably easier if those capable of taking them out had easy access to international security networks and a generous budget to do so?"
"It certainly wouldn't slow things down," Maria allows, voice wry.
Pepper hums thoughtfully. "We wouldn't want just anyone in charge of this, of course. It would need to be someone with the wherewithal to do what is needed when it's needed. I'm sure you know the right person for the job."
Maria smiles. "I do."
"Very well then. See that it's taken care of." Pepper stands, and Maria follows suit. Pepper holds out her hand and says, "I truly am glad to have you on board, Maria. It's an honor to work with you."
"Thank you."
Maria is unsurprised to find Stark loitering outside Pepper's office, poking at something on Marshall's desk because he can't stand still for more than five seconds. He looks up and raises an eyebrow.
"Hill."
"Stark."
"Making plans to take over the world with my CEO?"
"Of course." Maria heads for the elevators, but Tony stops her with a hand on her arm.
"It's going well?" he asks, earnest and honest for once.
Maria removes his hand from her arm. "As well as it can."